Unexpected Landslide Defeats Abortion Amendment In Kansas
There was a landslide victory for Democrats against a constitutional amendment that would have stripped Kansas residents of their right to access abortion, defying polling and political observers who expected a close result.
It is estimated that the ballot measure failed by a 60-40 margin late Tuesday after voters responded to an intense and costly campaign that was marked by dubious claims made by the amendment supporters and the unraveling of protections provided by the Supreme Court in the past.
Unexpected Landslide Defeats Abortion Amendment In Kansas
The question voters were asked, in the form of a confusingly worded constitutional amendment, was whether to end the right to abortion in Kansas by voting “yes,” or to preserve the right by voting “no.”.
During a watch party for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom in Overland Park, Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, told a crowd of abortion-rights supporters, “We did it; you guys made it happen.” We blocked this amendment. Can you believe it?”
In November, there will be a governor’s race and congressional seats on the ballot in the state, and the outcome could have far-reaching political implications. Moreover, it means that reproductive health care will continue to be accessible in a state where, last year, six girls younger than 14 were among the nearly 8,000 patients who underwent an abortion.
According to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, reproductive health care decisions should be made between a woman and her physician. I am proud to say that Kansans today defended their fundamental rights.”
It is proposed that an amendment to the Kansas Constitution be enacted as a reaction to a ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 that invalidated a state law restricting the use of a second-term abortion procedure. The court determined that the right to bodily autonomy enshrined in the state constitution’s Bill of Rights encompasses the right to opt out of pregnancy.
Kansas became the first state to vote on abortion rights in the post-Roe world after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing each state to determine its own rules for reproductive health care.
According to President Joe Biden, the vote shows that “the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should be able to make their own health care decisions.”
The American people want Congress to restore Roe’s protections as federal law, Biden said.
Urban areas of the state showed unexpectedly high voter turnout, while rural areas underperformed compared with two years ago.
“We knew this was going to be an uphill battle from the moment lawmakers put this on a primary ballot,” Sweet said. “We put in the work, and these numbers speak for themselves.”
She was moved to tears when the result was announced, as Dawn Rattan, who attended the watch party in Overland Park, said that the defeat of the amendment showed that reproductive health care is an issue that crosses party lines, “and people everywhere want women to have a choice.” Rattan said she was moved to tears when the results were announced.
“I was so scared when I saw him,” Rattan said. “I was just so worried that it was going to be really close, and it’s just that it’s just so decisive, it’s not even close at all. So I’m just happy and I’m not often moved to tears, so I’m kind of embarrassed, but I’m just really happy about the whole thing.
With the passage of the constitutional amendment, the Kansas Supreme Court ruling would have been nullified and the Kansas Legislature would have been given the authority to pass any kind of abortion restriction, regardless of the reasons for the restriction such as rape, incest, or the health of the patient. Since Kansas failed to pass the amendment, abortion will remain legal – and heavily regulated – for the foreseeable future.
In order to educate and influence voters, supporters and opponents of the amendment spent millions of dollars in their campaigns.
In spite of the fact that the so-called Value Them Both Coalition has refused to specify whether it will support a ban on abortion if the amendment passes, it has routinely denied claims that the amendment amounts to such a ban.
However, an audio recording obtained by Kansas Reflector revealed that the supporters of the abortion amendment already had legislation in mind that would ban abortion from conception until birth, without exceptions.
Due to the fact that the Value Them Both Coalition does not approve of the news stories that Kansas Reflector produces, the organization denied Kansas Reflector entry to their election night watch party.
According to a statement released by Dannielle Underwood, a spokeswoman for the Value Them Both Coalition, the result of Tuesday’s election is nothing more than a temporary setback for the campaign.
“We’ll be back,” she said.
In a statement, Mallory Carroll, spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said that the loss was “a major disappointment for pro-life Kansans and Americans across the country.”
There is no doubt that the stakes for the pro-life movement in the upcoming midterm elections couldn’t be higher, and there will also be many more factors at play,” Carroll said. I believe that it is crucial that pro-life candidates go on offense to expose the extremism of Democrats’ policy goals of nationalized abortion on demand paid for with taxpayer money.
There was a text message sent out to Democrats on Monday that incorrectly told them to vote “yes” to preserve reproductive health rights. The message was eventually connected to former Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas.
There have been complaints about the misleading language used in the amendment by those who oppose it. As a result of a line-by-line analysis by the Guardian, it was concluded that “the ballot language sows confusion in an attempt to have people vote ‘yes.'”
According to the amendment, the state could be able to provide exceptions under state law for rape, incest, and the life of a mother, despite the fact that the amendment does not actually require such exceptions. The amendment claims to ban government-funded abortion, which is already banned under state law, and suggests the Legislature “could” do so.
A typical abortion in Kansas is described in an annual report released by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment as occurring in a woman of color between the ages of 20 and 30 who lives in Kansas or Missouri, is unmarried, already has at least one child, has never had an abortion before, is less than nine weeks from delivery and uses the drug mifepristone to terminate her pregnancy.
As a result of existing restrictions, which remain in place, the patient has received state-ordered counseling to discourage her from getting an abortion, waited at least 24 hours, looked at an ultrasound image, and paid for the procedure from her own pocket as a result of current restrictions.
A KDHE report indicated that no abortions were performed outside of 22 weeks, which is the legal limit except for cases in which the life of the mother was in danger.
Sweet said the defeat of the abortion amendment was a historic event for both Kansas and the United States.
Sweet said: “We will not give up our constitutional rights, or our bodily autonomy, to the government, and we will look out for each other and take care of each other because that is what Kansas is all about, ” he said.